Our Mission
The Cloris Leachman Excellence in Theatre Arts Awards, affectionately known as the Clorises, celebrate excellence in theatre in greater Des Moines. The annual awards program brings together the theatre community and enhances the visibility of local theatre companies and their productions.
Our History
The Cloris Awards were founded in 2015 by three local theatre critics with support from the Des Moines Social Club. The founders recognized significant growth in central Iowa’s theatre scene and created the awards to simultaneously honor local companies’ achievements and offer a new incentive to further elevate their work. The Des Moines Social Club hosted the first two annual ceremonies, including the 2016 event that featured a visit from Cloris Leachman herself, before the ceremony moved in 2017 to Hoyt Sherman Place.
Our Namesake
The Cloris Awards are named for the legendary actress Cloris Leachman, who was born in Des Moines in 1926, started performing at age 7 at Drake University’s Children Theater and continued at the Kendall Playhouse (now the Des Moines Community Playhouse) while a student at Roosevelt High School. She attended Northwestern University and, as Miss Chicago, parlayed a run for the 1946 Miss America crown into a stint on Broadway. She married actor-director-producer George Englund in 1953, moved to Los Angeles in 1954 and raised five children before stepping into the roles that made her a household name in the 1970s. She starred as the nosy landlady Phyllis Lindstrom in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and its spin-off “Phyllis,” as Frau Blucher in “Young Frankenstein,” and as Nurse Diesel in “High Anxiety.” She won an Oscar for her role as a neglected housewife in the 1971 film “The Last Picture Show” and appeared in many other shows, including “The Facts of Life,” “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “Malcolm in the Middle” and “Dancing with the Stars.”